A research duo from Dartmouth and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has discovered that cancer medications have names that are associated with “lightness, smallness, and fastness”. Moreover, Gregory Abel, a Dartmouth linguist, goes further to say that there might be a “subtle effect on both the patient taking the medicine and the doctor prescribing it.”

The study, titled “Chemotherapy as language: Sound symbolism in cancer medication names,” was published online on Feb. 4, 2008, in the journal Social Science and Medicine. Glinert collaborated with Gregory Abel, a co-author on the study who is with the Center for Outcomes and Policy Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a member of the Dartmouth Class of 1991.
In their paper, Abel and Glinert explain that the use of language and narrative and its significance in caring for patients has been studied. Their examination adds a linguistic layer to the scholarship, deepening the understanding of how the sounds in a medication’s name might have an underlying symbolism. The team looked at the sound symbolism of 60 frequently used cancer medications. Sound symbolism is the phenomenon where tiny bits of sounds have intrinsic connotations.
“Medications are a bridge between patients and health care providers, and our findings might point to some symbolic and subtle, yet powerful, associations with the names of those medications,” says Glinert, who is also affiliated with Dartmouth’s program in linguistics and cognitive science. “The fact that sounds that elicit lightness, smallness, and fastness were found in the names of cancer medicines might suggest that it helps patients handle the therapy.”

Press release: Researcher finds symbolic overtones in the names of cancer medicines

We have some sad news for all the absinthe aficionados: you are simply alcohol lovers. The whole idea of supposed absinthe exceptionalism is up in flames, so to speak.
The American Chemical Society explains the results of this latest study:

A high alcohol content, rather than thujone, the compound widely believed responsible for absinthe’s effects. Although consumed diluted with water, absinthe contained about 70 percent alcohol, giving it a 140-proof wallop. Most gin, vodka, and whiskey are 80 to 100-proof and contain 40-50 percent alcohol or ethanol.
The study is scheduled for the May 14, 2008 issue of the American Chemical Society’s bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, where the full text of the article can be downloaded now without charge.
Absinthe took on legendary status in late 19th-Century Paris among bohemian artists and writers. They believed it expanded consciousness with psychedelic effects and called it ‘the Green Fairy’ and ‘the Green Muse.’ The drink’s popularity spread through Europe and to the United States. However, illness and violent episodes among drinkers gave absinthe the reputation as a dangerous drug, and it was banned in Europe and elsewhere.
In the new study, Dirk W. Lachenmeier and colleagues point out that scientists know very little about the composition of the original absinthe produced in France before that country banned the drink in 1915. Only a single study had analyzed one sample of preban absinthe. The researchers analyzed 13 samples of preban absinthe from sealed bottles-”the first time that such a wide ranging analysis of absinthe from the preban era has been attempted,” they say.
The analysis included thujone, widely regarded as the ‘active’ ingredient in absinthe. “It is certainly at the root of absinthe’s reputation as being more drug than drink,” according to Lachenmeier. Thujone was blamed for ‘absinthe madness’ and ‘absinthism,’ a collection of symptoms including hallucinations, facial contractions, numbness, and dementia.
However, the study found relatively small concentrations of thujone, amounts less than previously estimated and not sufficient to explain absinthism. Thujone levels in preban absinthe actually were about the same as those in modern absinthe, produced since 1988, when the European Union (EU) lifted its ban on absinthe production. Laboratory tests found no other compound that could explain absinthe’s effects. “All things considered, nothing besides ethanol was found in the absinthes that was able to explain the syndrome of absinthism,” according to Lachenmeier.
He says that scientific data cannot explain preban absinthe’s reputation as a psychedelic substance. Recent historical research on absinthism concluded that the condition probably was alcoholism, Lachenmeier indicates.

Press release: Absinthe uncorked: The ‘Green Fairy’ was boozy — but not psychedelic…
Image credit: absinthe still life by Agenda893 on Flickr

A team of chemists from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China figured out why tiny water droplets seem to get stuck to petals of red roses. Not unexpectantly, the mechanism, known as the Cassie impregnating wetting state, is a result of nanostructures (“hierarchical micropapillae” and “nanofolds”) on the surface of petals. What does it all have to do with medicine? Well, the usual: possible future medical materials, or other technologies.
Nature explains:

The beading of water droplets on natural materials is not a rare thing. But on many flowers and leaves the droplets slide off with the slightest tremble, taking dust and small insects off with them. The effect is known by biologists as ‘self cleaning’ and has been well studied by researchers keen to make better water-repellent materials.
The water slides off because the surfaces are very rough and spiky at the microscopic scale, and the tips of the spikes are covered in wax. The water molecules therefore come into contact with only a tiny fraction of the surface, and then only to water-repelling wax.
Lin Feng and her colleagues at Tsinghua University in Beijing found that although rose petals are coated with similar projections, they have wide, gentle-sloping troughs between the spikes, and no wax. The spikes keep the dew drops in a spherical shape, but the water ‘leaks’ into the troughs between spike-covered bumps, giving a bit of ‘stick’ and stopping a small droplet from rolling around (see diagram). Feng and colleagues report this structure in the journal Langmuir.
Once the team realized what the rose petals were doing to hold water, they were curious whether they could replicate the effect. They put some polyvinyl alcohol onto rose petals and allowed it to set, then peeled off a thin plastic cast of the petal surface. This film, the researchers found, had the same properties as the rose petal: the film could hold droplets of between 3-5 microlitres even when held upside down…
For a rose, this stickiness might come in handy as reflective water drops that glisten in the Sun might attract pollinating insects. In the lab, such materials might be useful for ‘lab on a chip’ devices that need to hold and shunt around tiny quantities of liquid without leaking or being contaminated by nearby materials.

Read: Raindrops on roses…
Abstract: Petal Effect: A Superhydrophobic State with High Adhesive Force Langmuir, 24 (8), 4114 -4119, 2008.
Image credit: . . . captured in a rose by fmarq on Flickr

Salvia divinorum, an unusual psychoactive sage described by a Brookhaven National Lab scientist as “probably one of the most potent hallucinogens known,” is currently on brisk sale throughout lower Manhattan, as well as most of the rest of the country where it is currently legal. The plant has gained some popularity over the years, and scientists are trying to learn more about its interaction with the brain.

Hooker [Jacob Hooker, chemist at Brookhaven and lead author of the study --ed.] and fellow researchers used positron emission tomography, or PET scanning, to watch the distribution of salvinorin A in the brains of anesthetized primates. In this technique, the scientists administer a radioactively labeled form of salvinorin A (at concentrations far below pharmacologically active doses) and use the PET scanner to track its site-specific concentrations in various brain regions.
Within 40 seconds of administration, the researchers found a peak concentration of salvinorin A in the brain – nearly 10 times faster than the rate at which cocaine enters the brain. About 16 minutes later, the drug was essentially gone. This pattern parallels the effects described by human users, who experience an almost immediate high that starts fading away within 5 to 10 minutes.
High concentrations of the drug were localized to the cerebellum and visual cortex, which are parts of the brain responsible for motor function and vision, respectively. Based on their results and published data from human use, the scientists estimate that just 10 micrograms of salvia in the brain is needed to cause psychoactive effects in humans.
Salvia doesn’t cause the typical euphoric state associated with other hallucinogens like LSD, Hooker said. The drug targets a receptor that is known to modulate pain and could be important for therapies as far reaching as mood disorders.
“Most people don’t find this class of drugs very pleasurable,” Hooker said. “So perhaps the main draw or reason for its appeal relates to the rapid onset and short duration of its effects, which are incredibly unique. The kinetics are often as important as the abused drug itself.”
The Brookhaven team plans to conduct further studies related to salvia’s abuse potential. The scientists also hope to develop radioactive tracers that can better probe the brain receptors to which salvia binds. Such studies could possibly lead to therapies for chronic pain and mood disorders.

Press release: Brookhaven Scientists Explore Brain’s Reaction to Potent Hallucinogen
PET images (color) of [¹¹C]-salvinorin A in the baboon brain overlaid on MRI template (black and white) summed from 3-7 minutes post-injection. High concentrations (red) were observed in the cerebellum and activity was seen throughout cortical and subcortical regions. The maximum concentration of [¹¹C]-salvinorin A in the brain occurs in 40 seconds and clears with a half-life of only 8 minutes, matching the pharmacological duration of action.